Last night I installed the cat probe that I got from Woodstock. I lit a load of Cherry and gave it air to get it going, and before long the probe was reading 1000*. When I later closed the bypass and the combustor lit off, the temp on the probe dropped to below 800*! Whaaat?? I'm used to the probe on the Dutchwest 2460, which is mounted on the top plate of the stove and hangs down right above the combustor. It can be used to tell you when to engage, and once the combustor is lit, will go to 1100-1200* in fairly short order. This Keystone probe seems to be useful only as a flue temp indicator. It does respond much quicker to air adjustments than the surface thermo that I've got lying on top of the tee snout close to the flue outlet, so that's informative. The probe comes with a magnet that I assume is to hold it in place and keep it from flopping around inside the stove, since the hole in the stove doesn't hold the probe shaft tightly. I thought that if I didn't use the magnet, the probe tip would be closer to the cat and give me better readings. When I tried this the temp came up a little, to around 900*, but nowhere near the temp that the cat is burning at, I don't believe.
I recall a recent thread where someone (Todd or Bill, I think) said that the probe tip on the Woodstocks "wasn't close enough to the cat" and I've seen posts about drilling a hole in the top to get the probe in a better position. I don't know that I'll do that; I can tell when to close the bypass by the stovetop meter and how the fire is burning. I'll probably just leave the probe where it is to give me feedback on firebox temps and how air adjustments are affecting them. Just not what I was expecting when I spent money on the cat probe...
I recall a recent thread where someone (Todd or Bill, I think) said that the probe tip on the Woodstocks "wasn't close enough to the cat" and I've seen posts about drilling a hole in the top to get the probe in a better position. I don't know that I'll do that; I can tell when to close the bypass by the stovetop meter and how the fire is burning. I'll probably just leave the probe where it is to give me feedback on firebox temps and how air adjustments are affecting them. Just not what I was expecting when I spent money on the cat probe...